


Faith

by Katalyna_Rose



Series: Vhenan and Associated Stories (Lyna Lavellan) [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Andrastianism, Dalish Elven Culture and Customs, Haven (Dragon Age)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 20:11:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11238312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katalyna_Rose/pseuds/Katalyna_Rose
Summary: Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast is a faithful Andrastian; she'd have to be, to become Right Hand of the Divine. Lyna Lavellan, Herald of Andraste, is faithful to her Elven gods. Yet even though the Seeker and the Herald do not particularly like each other, they consider, for a moment, if their faiths might be complimentary.





	Faith

Lyna raised a brow, amused and slightly intimidated when the training dummy snapped in half under the force of Seeker Cassandra’s practice sword. She approached the woman cautiously as she uttered her signature grunt of disgust.

“I think you need training dummies made of sturdier stuff,” she said, keeping her tone light.

“Tell me about it,” Cassandra replied, rolling her eyes and moving to the next dummy in the row.

“Like maybe iron,” Lyna continued as the new dummy rocking dangerously far back under the force of the next blow. Cassandra dropped the point of her sword.

“Did I do the right thing?” she asked, and Lyna couldn’t tell if it was rhetorical or not. The sword came back up and the dummy took more punishment. “What I have set in motion here could destroy everything I have revered my whole life. One day they may write about me as a traitor, a madwoman, a fool.” The sword point dropped into the dirt again. “And they may be right.”

Lyna tilted her head, wondering about this woman’s near obsession with the way the future would view her and pulled her fur cloak closer about her shoulders. “One day they may find a way to touch the stars,” she said after a moment, and Cassandra looked at her like she was insane. She smiled gently as she continued. “They may leave the ground, leave Thedas and the whole world behind to find out exactly what a star feels like. Yet will that make the stars any less beautiful or mysterious? I don’t think it will. And it will do nothing to diminish what we know about them now, only add to that knowledge. One day, you may look back on your choices and realize that you made the wrong ones. But you have acted using everything available to you in this moment, and that’s all you really can do.” Cassandra’s harsh face softened as she considered her one-time prisoner’s words. Then one corner of mouth turned up.

“You seem wiser than I would have expected a Dalish elf to be,” she finally said. Lyna shrugged, unwilling to explain the sorts of lessons she had learned that had taught her wisdom. Cassandra dropped the practice sword altogether and faced Lyna. “I still cannot shake the feeling that there is more to your presence here than mere coincidence,” she admitted. “But you’ve said that you don’t believe you are chosen. Does that mean you also don’t believe in the Maker?” She sounded as though that concept were foreign and entirely ridiculous to her, making Lyna’s hackles rise slightly.

“I’m Dalish,” she reminded the human Seeker mildly. “I believe in our own gods. I wear Mythal’s symbols to show my faith in the Goddess of Justice.” She gestured vaguely to her face and watched Cassandra’s eyes flicker over the purple lines with new understanding and wondered what exactly the Seeker had thought they meant before.

“And there’s no room among your gods for one more?” she asked at last, still examining the way the Vallaslin on her chin extended up through her lower lip.

It was exactly that sort of one-sided “acceptance” bullshit that made Lyna hover at the edge of hatred for shemlen. She gave the Seeker a gentle smile, revealing none of her ire. “Is there room within your faith for mine?” she asked gently, careful to present the question as a mere curiosity, wondering what the Seeker would do with the suggestion.

As expected, the Andrastian woman’s eyes bugged out and she looked like she might gag. And then she did what no religious shemlen had ever done; she surprised Lyna. “I suppose I do not know enough about Dalish beliefs to say, but I would be interested in learning more.” Lyna felt the world tilt at the thought that the Right Hand of the Divine would ask to know more about her faith and just barely managed to school her features. “Do you know much about the Chant?” It was not an accusation, as she might have expected, but a simple question; the woman seemed all but incapable of deceit.

“My father was born in Ostwick, so I know quite bit about the Chant,” Lyna admitted, though she’d forgotten most of what her father had taught her. He’d quickly adopted the Dalish beliefs after joining the clan, finding them much more to his taste than the songs he’d had shoved down his throat as a child. Still, he’d wanted Lyna to have a better understanding of the world beyond their clan and had taught her what he could remember. She’d also been studying Andrastian faith since she was named Herald; she figured that knowing something about the faith that she supposedly represented would be a good idea.

“And do you think that the two schools of belief could mesh without major conflict?” the Seeker asked, again with guileless intent. Lyna tilted her head, considering.

“I think that the problems would lie less in the faiths and more in the faithful,” she finally said. “I see many congruencies between our two religions, yet there are a number of ideals held by my faith that would be seen as borderline blasphemous to many Andrastians. Not because they are barbaric or even against anything explicitly stated in the Chant, but because they would mean that my people are your equals.”

“I see your point,” Cassandra said with a nod. “It is a thought worth exploring, however.” And with that, she picked her sword back up and resumed hacking away at the training dummy.

Knowing that there was nothing more to say between them at the moment and needing time to process the conversation, Lyna walked away, feeling oddly lightheaded. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Solas in the shadows cast by Haven’s open gate, watching her with a small smile. She returned it and approached.

“I think my faith in the potential of shemlen has just been restored,” she murmured once she joined him in the shadows.

“Oh?” he asked, raising a brow.

“The Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast, Right Hand of the Divine and lifelong faithful Andrastian, has just told me that she would like to learn more about Dalish beliefs and considered, in all seriousness, that our two belief systems might be complimentary,” Lyna told him, all her wonder and confusion evident in her voice. She watched Solas’s brows climb to the top of his head as he considered the Seeker, who grunted loudly as another training dummy died under her blade.

“Did she, then?” he murmured, focused intently on Cassandra.

“Who really knows if it’s possible,” Lyna said after a moment, her eyes also on the human. “I doubt there are enough people like her to even make the attempt.”

“Perhaps,” was all Solas said in reply. It was a thought worth considering.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, but I hate the line Cassandra has where she asks a Dalish Inquisitor that says they believe in their own gods why they can't also believe in the Maker. Why can't we argue about it? We should be able to argue about it. Because it's a shitty thing to say. Like, bitch, I'll believe in your god if your believe in mine. So that's basically what this is. Cass is a really reasonable, even logical person at heart, and I honestly think that she would be chill with the discussion as long as the Herald doesn't outright attack her, which Lyna would never do. Not outright, and not this early in their relationship, anyway.
> 
> Is Solas considering the benefits of human agents? You tell me.


End file.
